Flying Toblerones, mysterious illnesses and “silky-white substances” are among hundreds of close encounters described in previously top-secret files released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

More than 6,000 pages of material spanning 1994 to 2000 holds hundreds of other-worldly experiences with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and apparent aliens across Britain.

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Aircraft of all shapes and sizes have been witnessed flying over a wide range of locations – including Chelsea Football Club and the former Home Secretary Michael Howard ‘s home in Kent.

One man told police he was physically sick and developed a “skin condition” after an eerie “tube of light” enveloped his car in Ebbw Vale, in Wales, at 10.40pm on January 27 1997.

The file, the fifth released under a three-year project between the MoD and The National Archives, consists of 24 records of sightings, letters and Parliamentary Questions.

Highlights include a man who arrived at his Birmingham home at 4am on March 20 1997, to discover an illuminated blue triangle hovering over his garden. The craft shot off leaving behind a “silky-white” substance on the tree-tops, which he collected in a jam-jar.

And a West Lothian electrician who spotted a “Toblerone-shaped” UFO hovering over a field. A sketch of the craft is included in the report.

Experts believe the records highlight how shapes of reported UFOs have changed over the last half-century.

Dr David Clarke, author of The UFO Files and senior lecturer in journalism from Sheffield Hallam University said: “In the 1950s the next big leap in technology was thought to be a round craft that took off vertically and it’s intriguing to note that this is the same period when people began to report seeing ‘flying saucers’ in the sky.”